Speaking to reporters at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast in Boston, Warren argued that Lewis had earned the right to question the legitimacy of Trump's presidency.

"The president-elect stepped over a line when he attacked John Lewis as a man who is all talk and no action," the Massachusetts Democrat insisted. "John Lewis is man who literally put his life on the line to make this a better country, a fairer country, a country that is more open."

"Donald Trump hasn't put his life on the line for anyone except Donald Trump," Warren said. "John Lewis has earned the right to raise questions about [election] legitimacy. Right now, our intelligence community tells us that Russia directly interfered in the election here in the United States. John Lewis has a question about that and if John Lewis wants not to attend [the inauguration] because of that, that's certainly his right."

Comments

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service (revised 3/17/2016) for information on our posting policy.